1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a bathtub faucet, and particularly to a water switching structure of the faucet.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, a bathtub faucet has two water output paths communicated with two water outlets to provide two different ways of outputting water. One way is to fill water into a bathtub, and the other way is to supply water to a shower head (including a handheld shower head). Both require a switching valve for switching the way of outputting water. At present, most switching valves applied in the bathtub faucet are knob or uplifting switching valves for the control of switching, but the switching valves of this sort have the following shortcomings.
After the water valve is shut, the switching valve is still maintained at the switching status, so that when the water valve is opened again, the next user has no way to know about the switching status or determine whether the water will be outputted into the bathtub or from the shower head after the water valve is opened. Obviously, such application is inconvenient. If the sealing effect of a sealing washer used in the water path for back-pressure sealing is poor, a complete water stop effect cannot be achieved, and there will be leakages in water paths, and the switching effect between the water paths will be uncertain.
If a knob is used for the switching, the operation of the knob with water is relatively more laborious and slips easily. On the other hand, if a lifting rod is used for the switching, it is necessary to overcome the resistance in the valve to pull out the lifting rod, and thus it is also laborious.
It is noteworthy that the conventional structure also comes with an automatic restoring function, but the position restoration of the conventional structure is relatively slow. In summation, the present invention has the following advantages:                1. The invention can seal water completely and thus having no leakage issue.        2. The invention can achieve a low-pressure switching. At present, the manual mode can achieve the switching as low as 5 psi (or less, if the spring is adjusted appropriately).        3. The lifting rod requires users to grip by fingers, but the present invention allows users to achieve the switching operation by a touch of any part of the user's body or a touch of any object.        4. The spring can resume its original position reliably and quickly.        5. To resume the original position of the lifting rod, the handle is generally made of metal, but the handle of the structure of the present invention can be made of metal or plastic (particularly if the handle is an allotype, the metal component is more expensive, and the costs of internal parts are more or less the same, so that the cost of the handle of the invention is more competitive).        6. The present invention has a simpler structural design without any leakage issue and is capable of achieving the required water flow and splash more easily.        